


Dream a Little Dream of Me

by cinelitchick



Category: Bates Motel (2013)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-06-09 23:11:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15278262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinelitchick/pseuds/cinelitchick
Summary: This is set in the time between Alex Romero leaving the Bates house with Norma's wedding ring in hand after talking to the authorities upon his discovering her body and his arrival at the hospital to pick up Norman.Alex and Norma have some unfinished business. Closure and peace may never come for the sheriff of White Pine Bay, but at least he gets a little extra time with the love of his life.





	Dream a Little Dream of Me

Alex Romero pulled into his driveway just as the moon was nearing the end of its shift. He had spent part of the night at his wife's house explaining to the state police how he had found her unconscious in her bed next to her youngest son after a gas leak had poisoned the oxygen in her bedroom. Her other child had moved out awhile ago and was about to move to Seattle with his girlfriend and her father.

The fumes had killed her while she had slept. Alex had done everything in his power to save his beloved. However, he _had_ been able to resuscitate her youngest. It was cold comfort seeing as the eighteen-year-old was the reason the love of his life was gone.

Alex had left the house once he reclaimed his late wife’s wedding ring. The detective had claimed it was evidence, but he knew better. The breakup letter his wife had written earlier that evening — composed out of duress because he knew in his heart had it not been for that son of hers, she never would have felt compelled to craft it — was evidence. The ring was his.

He had driven around for a couple hours only to wind up back at his house. He was listless, rudderless; a boat floating on the water without an engine.

Looking out the windshield of the White Pine Bay Sheriff’s Department SUV he also retained for personal use, the sheriff felt worse than nothing — he felt _everything_. He was a raw nerve that desperately wanted his wife alive and for them to be back inside the bubble they had been living in while her kid had been getting the psychiatric help he needed at the Pineview Institute.

He had watched from the top of the stairs in front of the house as the emergency medical technicians loaded the teen into the back of the ambulance, the Bates Motel sign glowing in the near distance. He had vowed vengeance then and there.

Alex shook his head. “I'll be damned if I'm gonna sit out here and cry,” he said just before exiting the vehicle.

He walked into the house and went upstairs to his bedroom. He was completely exhausted. Off came the worn, brown leather jacket he usually wore in cooler weather. It was December with Christmas around the corner.

Not that the date was important.

Nothing mattered.

The jacket landed on the floor. His boots were tossed nearby. Curled up on the bed fully clothed in a charcoal gray henley, dark wash blue jeans and black socks, he hoped he actually could sleep. He had so many questions that remained unanswered; so many unresolved feelings about her death, their separation and her son’s hand in all of it. _That kid is fucking guilty. He killed her in some damn murder-suicide attempt. He won't get away with it. Any of it._

“Alex, stop it.”

He sat upright and looked over at the bedroom door. Joy and relief flooded his system.

She was there.

Not gone.

“Norma.”

Norma stood on the threshold, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed. She was wearing a light blue cardigan, a floral blouse with red petals, charcoal gray slacks and black flats. Her bobbed blonde hair caught the early morning rays of the sun from the windows located on the wall opposite the door as she walked over to his side of the bed. Those piercing blue eyes cut right through him as she sat down. “Don't blame Norman,” she told him. “It's not his fault. He didn't know what he was doing. It was an accident.”

“Are fucking kidding me?” He was awake now and ready for a fight if that's what she really wanted. “He’s wanted me gone from the beginning — which he gets — and still it's not enough. He wanted you all to himself and he made sure he got his way because _he always gets his way._ I don't know how he did it since that heater was brand new, but I know for _damn sure_ it wasn't an accident.”

If she didn't want a fight before, she did now. “You've had it out for Norman since the moment you first laid eyes on him!”

“Ohmigod. Here we go!” They had only just started and already Alex was exasperated. “Norman the victim.”

She was up now. “He is! He's ill! He doesn't know what he's doing!”

Alex was out of bed, standing in front of her. “Bullshit, Norma! He knows! Somewhere deep inside, he knows he's murdered people. Psychologically unstable or not, he's committed the act more than once. _You know this!_ It's why you had him commit himself to Pineview. He should still be there.”

“Don't you dare stand here and call my son crazy! He's not.” Tears were building and her lower lip quivered. “He's _not_ crazy. He's troubled.” She blinked back the water from her eyes. Her resolve reformed, she pointed at her husband. “You never understood Norman like I did.”

“Yeah? And where did that get you?”

Norma slapped him hard across the face. “ _I know he killed me!_ You don't think I know that?! That my own son gassed me out of this life? _Our life?_ I don't get another moment with you because he was too damn jealous of the man who stole my heart and gave me the best days of my life?” The tears were back and flowing. Her face was in her hands. “I'm so sorry, baby.”

Alex took her in his arms, consoling her as much as he could. “Hey. This isn't your fault. You couldn't have known what he would do. No one could have. Only Norman knew he what he was going to do.”

She wrapped her arms around him, resting her left cheek against his left shoulder. “He was my responsibility and I failed. I failed _him_. I failed _Dylan_. I failed _you_. I screwed everything up,” she said, her voice breaking. She clung to him a little tighter. “I was thinking of you till the end. I want you to know that.”

Tears fell down Alex's cheeks. His chin rested on top of her head. “I knew that letter was bullshit. The detective tried to tell me otherwise. But I knew.”

Norma giggled. “You knew me best. I meant what I said when I was here the other day.” She pulled back so she gaze into his warm brown eyes. “I'm not giving you up. That doesn't change now that I'm dead.”

He smiled.

“Even when you go back to hooking up with one of those chippies you have on reserve, it's still going to be true. Not for _you_ obviously….” A playful smile appeared on her lips.

Alex smiled and shook his head as he took her face in his hands and kissed her passionately. She reciprocated just as ardently. They made out for a few minutes. He enjoyed the feeling of her hands roaming his body before they firmly gripped his ass.

His lips left hers only because his lungs were begging for oxygen. “I will love you till the day I die. My last thought? Will be of you. The same as every single thought I have — and have had — since the night we met.”

Norma grinned. “I _knew_ you liked me even then.”

He smiled, wrapping his arms around her waist. “What's not to like?”

“Promise me something?”

“Anything,” he said, kissing her softly.

“Don't go after Norman.”

His head tilted back as he sighed, exasperated.

“Not for his sake. _For yours._ ” She had her hands on his chest. “I know how you are, Alex. You're a goddamn pit bull when you set your mind to something. It's going to get you killed one day.” She sighed. “Even if it is one of your best qualities.”

He lowered his head so he could look at her. “I can't get let this go.”

“Why? Just this one favor, _please._ ” Norma was desperate. She needed to understand his reasoning. She needed him to understand hers. God. Why did he have to be so damn pigheaded?

“No.” His answer was firm. Alex released her and walked behind her, facing the wall and running his hands over his face. He needed her to see sense. He needed for them both to be on the same page. God. Why did she have to be so damn stubborn?

She turned around. “Just let it go! Just this once. It won't kill you.” She watched him shake his head and put his hands on his hips. He was fighting her so hard, but she could see cracks in his reserve. She walked up to him and placed her hands on his shoulder blades. “Do it for me,” she added softly.

His muscles tensed. He turned his head to the left. His jaw set. “I said, ‘No.’”

In that second, Norma knew she had lost him. She heard the steel in his voice, the determination. She was done being diplomatic and playing to his better angels. She was beyond frustrated and she wanted answers — so she shoved him. “ _What the hell, Alex?!_ I ask you to do this one thing for me — _for us_ — and what? You can't be bothered? Better to swing your dick around and soothe your damn ego than grant your dead wife her last request?”

He shook his head, his back still to her. “Don't. Don't pick this fight with me. You know why I need to do this.”

“Yeah, I just said. This isn't about _me_ . This about _you._ ” She pointed at him, even though he couldn’t see it. “And how you hate to lose.”

This hit the raw, open wound that was his heart. He rounded on her and was inches from her face when he spoke.

“YES! I do hate to hate to lose. I hate losing the love of my life _moments_ after I’m finally allowed to have her. You may have thrown me out and written that note, but I will never for a second think that we are anything but together. We're connected, Norma Louise Bates. I am yours and you are are mine and I will burn this whole goddamn town to the ground, starting with Norman, if I think it will do any good.”

Norma took his face in her hands and brought his forehead to rest on hers. “Oh, baby. You can't save me. Not this time. You need to save yourself now. _I'm terrified for you._ ”

Alex was shaking. His breathing had quickened. He needed to avenge his beloved. This amazing woman shouldn't be dead. She should be alive and in his bedroom for real. Or better yet, they should be at her house, in their bed; snuggled together beneath the covers, asleep and happy.

That image alone brought him to his knees. He wound his arms around Norma’s waist and buried his face against her stomach. He was weeping; mourning what he had lost, as well as what never will be.

She bowed her head as she wrapped her left arm around his shoulders and ran the fingers on her right hand through his hair until they rested on the back of his head. “You are the best man I have ever known. You are the love of my life. I'm so sorry I screwed this up for us. That we won't get to grow old together. I really wanted that for us. I never wanted it with anyone else. The world was so much brighter with you in my life.

“It's time.”

Alex shook his head. The tears still streaming down his face. “It's too soon. I'm not ready. I can't lose you. Not again.”

“You'll never lose me, Alexander Romero. I'll always be with you. I love you with every ounce of my being.”

Alex awoke with a start. “I love you, too.”

There was no one there.

He was alone in the bedroom, clutching the pillow he had slept on like he had clung to her in his dream.

The empty cavity where his heart once had resided was now filled with a toxic substance that infected the rest of him with its thirst for revenge. He looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand as his cellphone rang. It was the hospital letting him know his stepson was going to be discharged in one hour if he would like to come get him.

Oh, he would like that very much.

He was going to be there whether the little shit liked it or not.

They were only getting started.

“Sorry, baby.”


End file.
